In Philippines, a push to preserve accounts of life under martial law
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. insists that his father was not a dictator.
To hear him tell it, the elder Marcos – who is believed to have stolen $10 billion from the Philippines before his ousting in 1986 – was a hardworking and collaborative leader who was forced to declare a nine-year martial law to protect his country from the overwhelming threat of communism. His only fault, his son and namesake recently told an interviewer, was that he cared too much about Filipinos.
Edita Burgos remembers the Marcos period differently. Widow of famed press-freedom advocate Jose “Joe” Burgos and former general manager of political newspaper WE Forum, Mrs. Burgos recalls how the elder
